Abstract:
We present a research effort into the application of semantic web
methods and technologies to address the challenging problem of
integrating heterogeneous volcanic and atmospheric data in support
of assessing the atmospheric effects of a volcanic eruption.
This exemplary
volcano eruption scenario highlights what is true for the vast majority
of data intensive Earth system investigations which have limited ability to
explore important and difficult problems. This is because they are forced to
find and use data representing an event or phemenonon of interest through
data collections at the data-element, or syntactic, level rather than at
a higher scientific, or semantic, level. Even if relevant
data is found in one collection, it may not be easy or possible to find
similar, related data in another collection. In many cases, syntax-only
interoperability IS the state-of-the-art and at best, there are some
instances of hard-wired but simple semantic enhancements
(e.g. a special purpose web service wrapper around the data).
Scientists and non-scientists are forced to learn details of the data schema,
other people's naming schemes and syntax decisions and details
of differing web site interfaces. These constraints are
limiting even when researchers are looking for information in their own
discipline, but they present even greater challenges when researchers are
looking for information spanning multiple disciplines, including some in
which they are not extensively trained. The volcano eruption scenario
exemplifies many of these challenges. In this paper we present research
progress on how semantic enablement for scientific data integration
is achieved. We present how ontologies implemented within existing distributed
technology frameworks are providing essential, re-useable, and robust,
support necessary for interdisciplinary scientific research activities.